01-10-2026, 06:23 AM
(01-10-2026, 03:54 AM)David_Kaine Wrote: whispering fields by the mill older than even a clockIn intensive critique, first, if column spacing is important, use a fixed font such as Courier (effectively, typewriter). The effect in default font here is (close to) two columns, each centered.
slowly infecting livestock pleasant and peaceful until
kids then come home with a chill forming a few tiny pocks
entering, no need to knock grudgingly swallow their pills
easily passing through locks nurses and doctors with skill
figure it came from the spill figure it came from the docks
anger as hospitals fill making its way up the blocks
bringing disease to the flocks living by sheer force of will
everyone else falling ill misunderstanding and shock
kids will cry 'fene' to mock enemies no one can kill
If this is a form, it's very clever (the way A and B rhymes dance back and forth, with the reader wondering whether to make the leap or carriage-return to the next line). The only break in meter is "livestock" - a variance is acceptable and sometimes welcome, but this one seems clumsy and perhaps unnecessary. Since you have "flocks" later, perhaps simply "their stock" would work.
I make the time sequence roughly northwest to southeast, but all the lines deal with the same situation and can be traversed differently without losing meaning.
There are two possible problems with the last line of the first column. The first is "fene," also the title, which I had to look up. Once aware that it's a foreign word for a minor demon and/causing a disease, it makes sense. "[M]ock," though, feels like forced rhyme - which tends to happen toward the end of a piece. I can picture children using the word as an insult, not knowing quite what it means but something bad and personal/personified, yet not in a *mocking* way, exactly. Maybe. I'd use italics, without single quotes, to indicate simultaneously that "fene" is a foreign word and that it's shouted. Perhaps an exclamation point: fene!
So just those two rough spots. It's good in that it forces the reader to pay attention, assembling the evidence. Not a medical person, I'd diagnose anthrax.
Non-practicing atheist

